All in Recipe
The Mix: two packets of plain instant oatmeal, flaxseeds, chia seeds, roasted almonds, and low-fat milk.
The Story: Instant oats taste like paste. The fact that I eat them a few times a week should tell you something about my culinary skills. Reading Bec's mouthwatering Oats of the Week posts gave me the idea that a few crunchy mix-ins could improve the texture of my instant oats and add more taste and nutrients.
My gripe about meatless dinners is that I often wake up hungry. I once welcomed the sensation, but no more. As the mother of two young kids, I change two diapers, warm two milks, and get two little mouths nibbling on fruit before I can crack an egg.
For Bec and Laurel, however, if they don’t have time to digest an egg sandwich before their first workout, being underfed translates to underperforming.
The Mix: Steel-cut oats topped with yogurt and plums.
The Story: A big scoop of low-fat Greek yogurt and chopped fresh fruit is a refreshing change from my winter combination, nuts and dried fruit. The yogurt makes the oats taste creamy and rich, but adds more protein than milk.
The Workout: I rode my mountain bike up the Shawangunk Ridge to the Mohonk Mountain House's skating pavilion (40 minutes), transitioned from bike gear to skating gear and hit the ice for an hour. I warmed up with hot chocolate by the rink-side fire, and then raced down the ridge in 20 minutes.
I'm not a huge meat eater and, I confess, I have never cooked a steak. While my aversion to red meat benefits my heart and the planet, it occasionally leaves me low on iron. And when I’m low on iron, a flat 30-minute jog seems like running a hilly 10K race in a tank of molasses.
Looking for a scientific explanation for my occasional iron deficiency, I emailed Robert Kunz, the vice-president of science and technology at First Endurance, a sports supplement maker and one of our sponsors.
The Story: Coconut entices my kids, who often don’t stop moving long enough to take more than three bites, to clean their plates. I once marginalized coconut as a nice complement to chocolate. But given how my kids adore it, coconut recently won prime counter real estate beside staples like salt, butter, and cinnamon.
We eat a huge amount of granola. We sprinkle it over oatmeal for extra calories before a big ride. We pour it onto yogurt for a post-workout second breakfast. We spoon it on ice cream for dessert. And we always pack a batch (double-bagged) in our gear duffle when we go abroad to race, so we’re sure to have a familiar food on hand.
The Mix: Steel-cut oats cooked with powdered ginger and banana, topped with walnuts.
The Workout: We did a 12-mile hilly run from Lenape Lane to Skytop in the Mohonk Preserve. After a 1-mile warm-up, it was 3.5 miles of hard uphill tempo-pace climbing, 2 miles flat recovery, 4.5 miles strong downhill running, and a 1-mile easy cruise cool down.
